Top 10 Stories

Paul Walker died in a car crash in November 2013. Scammers are leveraging the unfortunate incident to lure unsuspecting Facebook users to all sorts of malicious websites. The posts read something like this: “(Shocking Video) Leaked footage of Fast and Furious star Paul Walker shows that he was still alive minutes after Rodas and Walker crashed into a light pole and tree! - Watch the footage of the accident unfolding as the porsche appears to have...

Nest Labs makes smart thermostats and smoke detectors. Nest says customers can still use Apple products with devices. Google has expanded its presence in consumer homes by buying Nest Labs, a connected device company which makes smart thermostats and smoke detectors, for $3.2bn. The internet search giant announced an agreement to acquire Nest on Monday, signalling a deeper push into a new market of app-controlled household devices. They’re already delivering amazing products you can buy right...

Today we’re celebrating Patch Tuesday, the first time this year when Microsoft is said to unveil updates and security fixes for its products, including Windows. The company has already started the Patch Tuesday rollout with Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool 5.8, an improved version of its malware removal app that comes to lend a hand to users trying to get rid of specific infections. While no release notes have been provided on build number 5.8, the new...

Cyber-attackers targeting transaction data increasingly use software that monitors memory for unencrypted card numbers and account information. Security professionals are focusing on the tools that attackers use to steal the credit card data and account information from point-of-sale (POS) terminals and computerized cash registers as the likely source of massive breaches at retailers Target and Neiman Marcus. The most probable suspect is software known as a random access memory, or RAM, scraper, which steals data...

CESG, the Information Security Arm of GCHQ (Govt. of UK), conducted a series of tests in the last few months to review a set of 11 operating systems which currently run on various devices such as desktops, laptops, servers, mobile phones and tablets. In a direct comparison with 10 other operating systems, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, scored the highest in these assessments. The other operating systems which were compared are : Android 4.2, Samsung devices with Android...

Apple has failed to block a compliance monitor designated to it after a judge found the company guilty of fixing the prices of ebooks. Apple has lost its battle to block an antitrust compliance monitor aimed at ensuring that it does not fix ebook prices. According to Reuters, US District Judge Denise Cote denied Apple's request to remove the order. Apple intends to appeal the denial. Apple has taken issue with the compliance monitor, former US...

Germany’s Der Spiegel has published a couple of disturbing articles on the NSA surveillance activities. The media agency has focused its articles on the Advanced/Access Network Technology (ANT) division of the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) elite hacker unit, and the capabilities of the division in the development of advanced tools to infiltrate practically every technology. Der Spiegel published an internal NSA catalog that offers spies backdoors into a wide range of equipment from major IT vendors. The document includes backdoors for hard...

The malware attack that took advantage of Yahoo’s Java-based ad network around Christmas Eve was far greater than anticipated, the company confirmed in a post (via CNET) on its help web pages. Initially believed to have affected only European users on January 3, 2014, the malware ad attacks were then said to have occurred during December 31, 2013 – January 3, 2014.  

Washingtonsblog.com - Norway’s largest newspaper (Aftenposten) reports today that British spies pressured the developers of cellphone standards in the 1980s to intentionally weaken the cellphone’s encryption. In other words, hackers can break into cellphone calls much more easily because the British spied intentionally made the encryption 1,000 times weaker than it otherwise would have been.  

The Hacker News - The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman 'Patrick Leahy' reintroduced a revamped version of the "Personal Data Privacy and Security Act" for tough criminal penalties for hackers, that he originally authored in 2005. During last Christmas Holidays, a massive data breach had occurred at the shopping giant Target, involving hack of 40 million credit & debit cards, used to pay for purchases at its 1500 stores nationwide in the U.S.